guide
Instrucciones de Baby Sprout
La guía que viene en cada kit Baby Sprout: cómo plantarlo, cuánta agua darle y qué esperar semana a semana.
Para: families, partners
Iniciativas · 2020–presente
Baby Sprout
Una maceta, una planta. Un huerto de menta que cabe en el alféizar de una ventana.
- The box
- One ceramic pot, one plant
- Seed varieties
- Rotate by run — recent runs: cilantro, parsley, thyme, rosemary
- Soil and seeds
- Organic, non-GMO
- Time to first harvest
- Under 20 days
Cómo empezó
Por ahora esta página está en inglés. La versión en español está en camino.
MintBox started as a school project in the Avenues Mastery program. We modeled the pot in CAD, cut the first run of 25 by hand on a laser cutter, and wrote the growing guide with our humanities teachers so it read like something a person would actually follow. The first 25 boxes were gone almost immediately, and feedback from the people using them led to the ceramic 2.0 pot.
The design settled on one pot, one plant — mint first, because it is the most forgiving thing a first-time grower can put on a window sill. Everything is in the box, the soil and seeds are organic and non-GMO, and mint is ready to cut in under twenty days.
We are a nonprofit. Boxes are donated, not sold — more than 2,000 of them so far, through partner organizations across the city.
Cómo funciona
The pot is the whole system. Seed goes a quarter inch under the surface — deeper and mint will not find the light, shallower and it dries out before it roots. The soil mix holds water without waterlogging, and the drainage tray catches what runs through so a window sill stays dry.
Mint wants four to six hours of light and soil that stays just damp. The guide in the box covers the first thirty days day by day; after that the plant mostly wants to be cut. Every stem you pinch above a leaf pair splits into two, which is why a box that gets used gets bushier instead of running out.
30 days
Mira crecer un kit
Treinta días en un solo desplazamiento. Las cinco hierbas germinan y maduran en el orden real: el perejil de verdad es así de lento.
Basil
Chives
Mint
Oregano
Parsley
Día cero: semillas a medio centímetro de profundidad, regadas y puestas en el alféizar más luminoso.
What grows
Elige una hierba
Seed varieties rotate by production run — recent runs shipped cilantro, parsley, thyme, and rosemary. Pick one to see what it needs and how long it takes.
Mint
- Germinación
- 10–15 days
- Luz solar
- 4–6 hours; happy in part shade
- Riego
- Consistently moist — the thirstiest on this list
- Cosecha
- About 4–6 weeks, then continuously
- En la cocina
- Tea, salads, cold drinks
The MintBox flagship. Vigorous — in its own pot it can be cut back hard every couple of months and keeps coming.
In the kitchen
What to make with your mint
La menta fresca no es un adorno: es un ingrediente alrededor del cual se puede armar un plato, y el sentido de la caja es que siempre tengas. Seis cosas para preparar, más o menos en orden de esfuerzo.
Té de menta fresca Un puñado de hojas, apenas rasgadas, en una taza de agua recién hervida. Reposa cinco minutos. Es la receta más usada entre las familias con caja, y la razón por la que la menta se acaba más rápido que cualquier otra hierba que probamos.
Agua de menta Unas ramitas en una jarra de agua fría, una hora en el refrigerador. Más barato que cualquier bebida embotellada y los niños de verdad la toman.
Salsa de yogur y menta Una taza de yogur natural, un buen puñado de menta picada, una pizca de sal, un chorrito de limón si tienes. Va con arroz, cualquier cosa a la plancha, o como dip. Dura tres días.
Menta con fruta Hojas rasgadas sobre melón, fresas, naranja o piña en trozos. Un poco de azúcar si la fruta viene ácida. Es un postre de dos minutos.
Ensalada estilo tabule El grano que tengas (bulgur, arroz, cuscús), mucha menta y perejil picados, tomate y pepino picados, aceite de oliva, limón, sal. Las hierbas son el punto: sé generoso.
Chimichurri de menta Un puñado de menta y otro de perejil, un diente de ajo, aceite de oliva, un chorrito de vinagre, sal, chile si te gusta. Licúa o pica fino. Sobre verduras asadas, huevos, frijoles o carne a la parrilla. Dura una semana refrigerado.
Todo esto sale con lo que una caja produce en una semana normal de cortes.
Qué incluye
- Ceramic pot
- Organic, non-GMO potting soil
- Heirloom, non-GMO seed packets — varieties rotate by production run; recent runs shipped cilantro, parsley, thyme, and rosemary
- Beginner's growing guide, written with humanities teachers
- Drainage tray
Photographs
Galería
Impact
Lo que hemos hecho hasta ahora
- Boxes donated
- 2,000+
- Every MintBox physically built and donated to a person or partner organization since 2020. The total through August 2023 (about 200) is documented on the old site; the figure of more than 2,000 through 2026 was reported and re-confirmed by the team in 2026; the St. Clement's Food Kitchen partnership alone accounts for about 400 of them. Year-by-year records for 2024 to 2026 are still being reconciled. Boxes built but still in storage are excluded.
- EDU kits donated
- 250+
- EDU kits given at no cost through classrooms, shelters and school families. The documented 2023 deliveries were 50 boxes to four Covenant House shelters and 25 to Avenues Lower School; the total of 250+ through 2026 was reported by the team in September 2026.
- Raised since 2020
- $2,500+
- Gross funds raised through grants, awards and individual donations since 2020, used for materials, tooling and delivery. MintBox is a nonprofit: boxes are donated, not sold. Early fundraising included a 2021 stall at the Union Square Greenmarket.
Materials
Guías y materiales
guide
Jardinería en casa
Guía para principiantes sobre cultivar alimentos en un apartamento de Nueva York: luz, macetas, riego y qué es realista en un alféizar.
Para: families
Field log
Registro de construcción
agosto de 2026
First session at VISIONS at Selis Manor
A morning session at 135 West 23rd Street with KidsKnowRights, hosted by VISIONS' program and community engagement team, for blind and visually impaired New Yorkers. We committed about 60 boxes; the pot shipment arrived broken, so 10 went out on the day and the rest are being scheduled. Mint is a plant you can grow by touch and smell — this partnership is shaping every guide we print.
junio de 2026
Two thousand boxes
Somewhere this spring, the total number of MintBoxes donated since 2020 passed two thousand. It took three years to donate the first two hundred and about two more to donate the next eighteen hundred. The year-by-year records are being reconciled for the impact page.
mayo de 2026
Boxes in the courtyard at Hudson Guild
Back at Hudson Guild — this time with growing boxes. Members and residents opened their kits together at the courtyard tables, picking their herbs and starting them on the spot. Shared by the team in May 2026; the exact event date is being confirmed for the record.
mayo de 2026
200 kits to school families
Requests came through a parent form and delivery ran to homerooms rather than entrance pickup. Demand outran supply — more than 40 additional families asked after the first giveaway, so the form closed when materials ran out. Every family already on the list still received a box.
marzo de 2026
The bilingual planting guide ships
Every kit now carries a printed guide in English and Spanish — five illustrated steps covering location, filling the pot, planting, watering, and growth — with a QR code linking to more. A guide a family cannot read is decoration; this changed who the box works for.
marzo de 2026
Presenting with Elliott-Chelsea Houses at Avenues
The MintBox Community Giveaway, a collaboration between Avenues and Elliott-Chelsea Houses at 259 10th Avenue: we introduced the mission, demonstrated how the boxes work with the Growing Food in Small Spaces presentation, and distributed MintBoxes to residents. Months of planning with the Resident Association, delivered as one community day.
febrero de 2026
A joint community event at Saint Peter's Lutheran Church
Alongside KidsKnowRights and the Language Service Club: the church hosted and made the introductions, the wider effort collected toys and clothing for families, and we handed out MintBoxes — cilantro, parsley, thyme and rosemary — and taught planting. The partnership model working exactly as designed.
noviembre de 2025
Planting workshops begin at St. Clement's Food Kitchen
Distribution paired with a hands-on workshop rather than a drop-off: families plant their box before they take it home. About 400 boxes have gone out through this partnership to date, and it is ongoing.
septiembre de 2025
Kits at the New Sanctuary Coalition legal clinics
We began distributing kits to families attending NSC's weekly pro bono immigration legal clinics, alongside the childcare program a MintBox member founded and runs there. The boxes travel through a relationship that already exists — which is the whole model.
julio de 2021
A summer stall at Union Square Greenmarket
We manufactured 75 more boxes with the ceramic 2.0 pot and spent the summer at Union Square — early fundraising, and the best lesson we ever got in explaining the box in thirty seconds.
junio de 2021
Laser cutting the first 25 boxes
We developed the first MintBox pot in CAD through the Avenues Mastery program and cut a run of 25 by hand on a laser cutter. Every one found a home within days.